Charters open door for privatization of school management

The drive to open the door for privatization of management of public schools has begun. Private charter school companies have been working to hire a stable of Montgomery lobbyists in their attempt to get charter schools authorized in Alabama. Montgomery scuttlebutt is that certain people are being flown to California in preparation for this new assault against public education.“AEA has fought school privatization efforts for decades, and this newest of privatization efforts is evidently coming full force,” said AEA’s Executive Secretary Dr. Henry Mabry. “When a bevy of lobbyists is hired for any issue, it is obvious that there are bushels of money to be made at the expense of taxpayers. This time, the circular flight patterns of the charter school privateers indicate that gobs of money are going to be up for grabs at the expense of our public school children.

“Private corporations making profits through the ‘management’ of charter schools means one thing: less money to run our already underfunded public schools,” Mabry added. The proposed legislation coming forth would allow dozens of charter schools to be set up through the state initially and after five years there would be no limit to how many charter schools could be established. On top of that, the legislation would allow a politically-appointed board in Montgomery the right to overrule decisions of local boards of education when charter schools are denied.

“Coincidentally, there are about 50 schools in the state that need substantive improvement, but instead of recreating the wheel, our underperforming schools simply need help,” Mabry said. “We need to fix the schools that are not up to par instead of creating charter schools that have a dismal record.”

During Gov. Guy Hunt’s administration, the Legislature passed a bill in 1995 to address poorly performing schools. Under that legislation, the state intervened to improve poorly performing schools. That model of improving schools worked, but it was dropped while Gov. Riley was in office. The state is currently considering taking over schools in Midfield because of their problems.

“Instead of creating charter schools, which do not have a proven record nationally, we need to fix our poorly performing schools via improvements including state takeover if necessary,” Mabry said. “We do not need to divert limited education money to create new school systems controlled by a political bureaucracy in Montgomery. The people are opposed to using taxpayer dollars for creating private schools, and these charter schools are nothing but that – schools created that selectively choose some students, schools that have no accountability like public schools, and schools that have no curriculum or certification requirements.”

Mabry points to Florida’s charter schools, which have been plagued with bad results, exclusive enrollment, and negative headlines, and already costs the state over $400 million a year.

“Education already faces another $108 million cut next year. Can Alabama afford another program that diverts tens or hundreds of millions of dollars away from our public schools when we can’t even afford textbooks for students? Obviously the answer is no,” Mabry said.